House of Solidarity

In the past 2 years the ongoing tightening of the Hungarian refugee regulations has pushed even those, who have already received asylum (and thus are staying here legally) into more and more inhumane circumstances. When they get the order granting asylum, they have 30 days to leave the reception centre they had been staying at – which at least provided shelter and sustenance to them. From then on the state of Hungary doesn’t handle the refugees’ social care or any kind of integration.

According to our experience more and more refugees run out of their savings by that time, and they don’t even have the chance to travel on to a more accepting western country. Thus they are left with no option but to stay and try to survive here. Unfortunately a Syrian family begging on the streets of Budapest or holing up at a homeless shelter is not an uncommon sight. They are dropped to the lowest possible social rank in an unknown country. One of the greatest issues of being a refugee is homelessness. The children loose or don’t even get to know the feeling of a safe home, because they are on the road with their families for years, from one country to the other, from one refugee camp to the next.

Since its forming, Migration Aid didn’t have a ‘home’, an office serving as a fixed centre or community space either. Mainly because we didn’t want to give up money for this, since we thought we could spend it better. Right now we only spend money on renting warehouses. Our volunteers meet and discuss everything only at the field work or at virtual chatrooms. If needed, we meet at home or in a café in Budapest.

As a solution for these two problems at the same time, we have come up with the idea of the “House of Solidarity”. This would mean that we could shape up a centre at a relatively large property in the capital, which could house the offices of Migration Aid, provide a community space and donation handover point, and also give shelter to a few families, who had to leave the refugee camps of Vámosszabadi or Kiskunhalas (these are the two camps for those who were granted asylum in Hungary).

Do you want to help?

– We are looking for a property (even which needs renovation) of 300-400 sqm, in Budapest.
– We are also looking for flats for rent on a low price in or around Budapest for refugees, who were already given asylum, so they are legally staying in Hungary.
– Can you help the integration of the refugees who are staying legally in Hungary by offering them a job, an opportunity to earn money?

If you can offer any help in these matters, please contact us on info@migrationaid.org.